My son has an HP Pavilion dv6423om laptop. It will not boot and the screen does not light up at all. You can see it trying to boot (panel lights come on) but it does not get very far before it tries to restart again. Can't see what it is doing because screen does not even show a cursor. I have reseated the hard drive and memory but no luck. Is it the mother board or could it be a bad hard drive? Thanks for any advice in advance. This laptop is 3 years old and seems to get hot often.

The operating system is windows vista. The screen never lights up. I created a recovery dvd out of the box and I have tried booting from it but can't tell what is going on because there is nothing on the screen. Tried F8 before I asked for help but no screen display. Do you know if there is any recourse with HP on this type of laptop? Has already had the motherboard replaced while underwarranty. This thing really can get hot. In fact I had my son remove the battery a long time ago and only use the ac adapter because it ran so hot. I guess we are stuck. Hard drive problem would not cause the screen problem right? It's probably the motherboard again. This thing has been nothing but trouble. I would never buy another HP product. I work in the technology dept. at a school and we use all HP but this one is a lemon. I'm trying to decide whether to get a motherboard or just junk it and buy something else.

Thanks again.The operating system is windows vista. The screen never lights up. I created a recovery dvd out of the box and I have tried booting from it but can't tell what is going on because there is nothing on the screen. Tried F8 before I asked for help but no screen display. Do you know if there is any recourse with HP on this type of laptop? Has already had the motherboard replaced while underwarranty. This thing really can get hot. In fact I had my son remove the battery a long time ago and only use the ac adapter because it ran so hot. I guess we are stuck. Hard drive problem would not cause the screen problem right? It's probably the motherboard again. This thing has been nothing but trouble. I would never buy another HP product. I work in the technology dept. at a school and we use all HP but this one is a lemon. I'm trying to decide whether to get a motherboard or just junk it and buy something else.
Thanks again.

I already tried hooking up an external monitor and no luck. Good idea to try each piece of ram separately. I will try that. If that does not work, I may try replacing the motherboard myself. I do have some technical experience. I may just buy a new one.I already tried hooking up an external monitor and no luck. Good idea to try each piece of ram separately. I will try that. If that does not work, I may try replacing the motherboard myself. I do have some technical experience. I may just buy a new one.

I think you can see the black screen or the Bios screen even if you don't see anything further, or nothing at all? Cursor is another case, but once it tries to boot up, it should show something on the screen, like black screen with white text or something similar. If so, then I would suspect Windows Boot issue or some boot files might have been corrupted or damaged or deleted or missing.

I appreciate that you've already done the basics like reseating Hard disk and Ram. Now, you'll need a windows CD or a Recovery/repair disk, (since you didn't mention the O.S. name, i can't verify which Windows Recovery/Repair disk you should use, if it's windows vista, you have to use a Windows vista Recovery/Repair Disk). But here's another problem, since HP don't provide the Recovery disk (they only instruct to Order the Disk on Hp Official Website), you have to get one for yourself. Before you look for one, you have another option.

Once you press the power button to power up the Machine, keep tapping the F11 on the keyboard and wait, if you see anything on the screen, you have a chance (but not all problems) if you can proceed with the onscreen instructions and Restore the system to Earlier State, then proceed ahead and try with the System Restore Wizard.

You can also try with the Safe Mode, press the power button the Power-on the laptop and keep press F8 button on the keyboard, it'll direct you to the "Advanced Boot Options", if this is possible, then select "Safe Mode" from the options available (use the arrow keys and press enter to confirm and proceed). It'll show several white texts with black screen and will boot up after few minutes, if any message pops up to confirm your input, click "yes" or "Ok". Once it's successfully booted, uninstall some softwares or applications or drivers etc.. you had recently installed, again reboot the system into Normal mode, if Safe Mode is not possible, your last option (from your end) is to boot from a Windows CD and check if it can go well. These are all what you can do from your end, if these fail, you better call a tech or hp or take it to a local service center.

Thanks for the info. It's good that you've already done most of the troubleshooting steps/measures. If nothing shows up on the screen, I would also suspect the motherboard, but try just only once with an external monitor.

There is no known issue with this model except "Overheating". It's clear that this model has overheating issue.

As you said, Hard drive problem would not cause this issue, but Ram could, if you have multiple Rams installed on the system, swap them, i.e. install the first and boot up the system, if nothing? then install the second and try again. This will show the result of the Ram, if one of them is bad, at least one of them should work..

If it's again the "Motherboard" then I would not recommend you to replace it, as you've mentioned it's 3 years old, and it's no longer under warranty, you'll pay nearly half the price of a better newer laptop. Though the motherboard is not that costly, they will charge you very high fee. I would assume, it could cost you nearly $400 or maybe less or more..

There is nothing more that we can do, but if you are planning to throw it, don't forget to take out the ram, hard disk or other cards like wireless Lan card. I hope you will be able to sell the box with the display, maybe someone is interested or looking for the same lcd.

I wish you good luck.

Thanks for using FixYa.

Thanks for the info. It's good that you've already done most of the troubleshooting steps/measures. If nothing shows up on the screen, I would also suspect the motherboard, but try just only once with an external monitor.

There is no known issue with this model except "Overheating". It's clear that this model has overheating issue.

As you said, Hard drive problem would not cause this issue, but Ram could, if you have multiple Rams installed on the system, swap them, i.e. install the first and boot up the system, if nothing? then install the second and try again. This will show the result of the Ram, if one of them is bad, at least one of them should work..

If it's again the "Motherboard" then I would not recommend you to replace it, as you've mentioned it's 3 years old, and it's no longer under warranty, you'll pay nearly half the price of a better newer laptop. Though the motherboard is not that costly, they will charge you very high fee. I would assume, it could cost you nearly $400 or maybe less or more..

There is nothing more that we can do, but if you are planning to throw it, don't forget to take out the ram, hard disk or other cards like wireless Lan card. I hope you will be able to sell the box with the display, maybe someone is interested or looking for the same lcd.

Check NVIDIA's website http://www.nvidiasettlement.com) as you have an NVIDIA graphics card that could be causing this issue. Since you had your motherboard replaced once, this could be the issue (graphics card runs so hot it will actually flow the solder and render the motherboard unbootable). Otherwise, i agree that the repair is not cost effective, remove the hdd, place it in an external enclosure for data recovery/backups/extra storage. The RAM is of an older style and will be unusable in a new notebook. Sell notebook to a local shop for parts. Sorry for the issue, but HP, Apple, Dell and others all had the issue with this graphics card. JimCheck NVIDIA's website (http://www.nvidiasettlement.com) as you have an NVIDIA graphics card that could be causing this issue. Since you had your motherboard replaced once, this could be the issue (graphics card runs so hot it will actually flow the solder and render the motherboard unbootable). Otherwise, i agree that the repair is not cost effective, remove the hdd, place it in an external enclosure for data recovery/backups/extra storage. The RAM is of an older style and will be unusable in a new notebook. Sell notebook to a local shop for parts. Sorry for the issue, but HP, Apple, Dell and others all had the issue with this graphics card. Jim

lot of hp laptops over heat but there were some recalled batteries and if you ever do get it working again i would look into that and my friend had the same exact problem with an older model (xp) and just out of curiosity i put it in the freezer for a while and took it out and it came right onlot of hp laptops over heat but there were some recalled batteries and if you ever do get it working again i would look into that and my friend had the same exact problem with an older model (xp) and just out of curiosity i put it in the freezer for a while and took it out and it came right on

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yes, i would definately try removing the memory modules and blow some forced air into the connectors as well as using alcohol on a q-tip to clean the module contacts before inserting them back into the board. If it still does not properly boot, try removing one module making sure the remaining module is seated into the #1 slot, and reboot. If it does not boot, remove and replace with the other one, leaving that one out, reboot. If, at that time, it boots, you now know which module, if any, are bad.